Arch support



Jan. 5, 1965 J. G. MACDONALD ARCH SUPPORT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 ,LuuEunL gwAz/nw/ Filed "eb. 14, 1963 Jan. 5, 1965 J. G. MACDONALD 3,164,156 ARCH SUPPORT Filed Feb. 14, 1965 2 Shqets-Sheet v Ian-rural United States Patent f 3,164,156 ARCH SUPPORT John Gordon Macdonald, London, Engiand, assiguor to Laboratories for Applied Biology Limited, London, England, a British company Filed Feb. 14, 1963, Ser. No. 258, 98 Claims. (Cl. 12859) The invention relates to supports for the feet and provides a support for the arch of a foot and comprising a pad which is adapted to fit inside a shoe and a strip of ductile metal (eg. aluminium) attached to the pad, or held in a pocket therein, said strip extending along at least the part of the pad which in use lies beneath the arch, or at least a part thereof, and being manually bendable to a desired shape to support the arch.

Preferably the arch to be supported is the medial arch and the strip extends, in use, from in front of the heel bone under the medial arch.

The strip may be on the underside of the pad and may be attached to the pad by a sheet (eg. of fabric or plastic) which is adhesively secured to the pad over and around the strip.

There may be a tension device extending between the ends of the bent strip to retain it in its bent form. The tension device may be a spring or elastic member or alternatively, a straight strip with its ends hooked over the ends of the bent strip.

Preferably the strip lies nearer one side of the pad and in one form of the invention there are two strips, each bendable as aforesaid, one nearer one side of the pad and the other nearer the other side of the pad, so that one pad may be used for either foot.

In a second form of the invention there is a strip, or strips, bendable as aforesaid, for supporting the medial arch which strip extends substantially lengthwise of the support and also a strip, bendable as aforesaid, for supporting the metatarsal arch and which extends substantially transverse to the support.

There may be markings indicating the sizes of different feet to assist in cutting the support to fit into a shoe.

Some specific examples of supports for the arch of a foot and according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top view of a support,

FIGURE 2 is an under plan of a clip for use with a support,

FIGURE 3 is an under plan of a second support,

FIGURE 4 is an under plan of a third support,

FIGURE 5 is a view on the line 55 in FIGURE 4 showing the third support bent to support a medial arch of a foot,

FIGURE 6 is an under plan of a fourth support,

FIGURE 7 is a side view of the fourth support bent to support a medial arch,

FIGURE 8 is a plan view of a fifth support, and

FIGURE 9 is a plan view of a sixth support.

The support shown in FIGURE 1 comprises a rectangular pad 10 of foam rubber covered on the top and bottom with flexible plastic.

There are two aluminium (or other pliable or ductile metal) strips 11 one on each side of the pad and these are held in place between the foam rubber and the bottom cover of plastic which is glued to the foam rubber.

On the bottom of the pad there is a rectangular flap 12 of flexible rubber which is secured to the foam rubber at 14 and 15 where the bottom cover of plastic is cut away. There is a third aluminium strip 16 lying between the flap 12 and the bottom plastic cover.

On the top plastic cover there are four sets of markings 17, 18, 19, 20. The markings 17 and 18 indicate the 3,164,156 Patented Jan. 5, 1965 lines of cuts to shape the support to the dimensions of feet having different sizes so that the support will fit inside a shoe in the manner of an insole. The side markings 19 and 20 indicate the positions of the strips 11.

In use the pad is cut to the size of a foot and the strip 11 of aluminium which lies under the medial arch of the foot is manually bent-usually by bending into a bridge or upwardly convex curve-to the shape of the said medial arch which is to be supported. The support is worn inside the shoe.

Two strips 11 are provided so that the same support may be used for either a left or a right foot although it might be possible to use the second strip to support the lateral arch while the first supports the medial arch.

The strip 16 is bent to form a bridge when it is desired to support the metatarsal arch.

A tension spring may be used to hold the aluminium strips 11, 16 in their bridged shapes. A suitable spring is shown in FIGURE 2 and comprises a short length 21 of elastic with metal hooks 22 at both its ends and which may be hooked into the bottom plastic cover (or the flap 12) at both ends of a strip to support the strip.

The second support shown in FIGURE 3 comprises a pad of rubber foam covered on its upper side with a flexible plastic cover.

On the under side of the pad are markings 24, 25 and these markings indicate different positions for the heel of a foot and the front ends of the metatarsals of a foot respectively. Thus the pad does not in use extend forward to the extreme front of the foo-t.

On the underside of the pad there are two aluminium strips 26 which are attached to the pad by a sheet 27 of foam rubber covered on its lower side with Woven fabric. Alternatively the sheet 27 could be of woven material. The strips 26 lie at an angle to the sides of the pad.

The tension spring shown in FIGURE 2 if desired may be used in conjunction with the second support.

The third support shown in FIGURE 4 comprises a pad of perforated foam rubber covered on its upper side with a perforated woven fabric.

The upper side of the pad is marked with the shape of a foot as in the previous examples and on the lower side of the pad are secured two perforated aluminium strips 31), 31 to support the different arches of a foot. The strips 30, 31 are held on the pad by means of sticky tape 32 (for example that sold under the trade name Sellotape).

The strips may be attached to any part of the pad which is to lie under the part of a foot desired to be supported.

The tension member shown in FIGURE 2 may be used with the third support and the hooks 22 conveniently fit into the perforations of the strips 31), 31. Such an arrangement is shown in FIGURE 5.

The fourth support shown in FIGURES 6 and 7 comprises also a pad of perforated foam rubber 34 covered with perforated woven material 35, the material lying uppermost.

The pad has the normal foot markings on its upper side and on its underside there are two arch support members 36, 37. Both of the members 36, 37 are constructed in the same manner except that they are of different dimensions, the larger member 36 being designed to support the medial arch and the smaller member 37 being designed to support the metatarsal arch of a foot.

FIGURE 7 is a side view of the support showing the arch support member 36 in its bridged or raised position.

The support member comprises two aluminium strips 38, 39 and a foam rubber strip 40 on top of the upper strip 38. The member is held to the foam sheet 34 by a strip 41 of two-way sticky tape (e.g. Sellotape) or by two split rivets 42. Thus the member 36 may be 3 7 moved to any desired position on the support. Both sticky tape and rivets are shown in the drawings but only one or the other would be used in practice.

The arch support members 3-6, 37 are stored fiat (i.e. with the strips 38, 359 lying parallel to and adjacent one another). In use, the strip 3% is removed and the upper strip 38 together with the foam strip 4%) are bent to the desired (e.g. bridge) shape. The strip 39 is now replaced andhooked around the ends of the support members to hold the set of the strips 38, 49. The strip 39 may be ribbed to make it more rigid.

The fifth support which is shown in FKGURE 8 is identical with the support of FIGURES 6 and 7 except that the bottom of the pad is coveredwith a layer of flexible plastic. There aretwo pockets 43 and 4 between the plastic and the foam rubber and [the two arch support members 36, 37 lie in the pockets instead of being secured to the suppont with sticky tape.

The sixth support shown in FIGURE 9 has a pad comprising two sheets of leather glued together back to back to form a leather insole.

There are two pockets 46, 47 into which fit arch support members 48, 49 which are identical to the arch support members shown in FIGURES 6 and 7 although the member 49 may have the foam strip omitted.

The support member can be fitted to either left or right shoes simply'by reversing it.

ample a ring of felt may be attached to the top or bottom surface to provide a socket for a misplaced bone.

Although the supports shown in FEGURES l and 3 each have two strips of aluminium they could be manufactured in pairs with one strip for each support.

The method of supporting the arch of the human foot comprises manually bending to a desired shape the strip of any one of the supports herein described, and inserting the support between the sole of the foot and the upper sole of a shoe worn on the foot whereby the bent strip lies beneath and supports at least a part of the arch.

I claim:

1. A support for an arch of a foot consisting of a fie);-

ible pad shaped to fit inside a shoe at a fixed location It will be noted that the member 49 runs lengthwise of the insole.

In a modified form the sixth support may be adapted to stop short of the front end of a foot at the front of the metatarsals. The modified form is indicated by the chain dotted line Si in FIGURE 8.

It will be seen that any of .the supports described could be adapted to have a longer (from heel to toe) or a shorter (from heel to the front of the metatarsals) length.

Further the sizes and shapes of the pockets and the metal strips may be arranged differently to suit any particular requirement.

In all the above examples the metal strip is not essentiallyof aluminium and may be of any suitable pliable or ductile metal of sutficient stiffness.

Additional supports for particular parts of the foot may be attached to the pads of any of the supports. For exand at least one arch support unit comprising a strip of bendable ductiie metal bent to arch form, means securing the external surface of the arch strip to the pad, and a tension member extending between the ends of the arch strip and consisting of a further metal strip the ends of which are bent and hooked over the ends of the arch strip to prevent separation of said ends.

2. A support as claimed in claim 1 in which said securing means are split rivets.

3. A support as claimed in claim 1 in which there is a resilient layer between the pad and the arch support unit.

4. A support as claimed in claim 1 in which there are two arch support units, one unit extending substantially lengthwise of the pad and the other unit extending substantially crosswise of the pad.

5. A support as claimed in claim 1 in which the pad is provided with markings indicating the sizes of different shoes to assist in shaping the pad.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,144,291 6/15 Boyer 128-596 X 1,469,607 10/23 Scholl 1285-96 X 1,496,994 6/24 Mirizio l28596X 2,114,526 4/38 Peder 128-609 2,510,654 6/50 Pepin 12s 59s TCHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

LOUIS R. PRINCE, Examiner. 

1. A SUPPORT FOR AN ARCH OF A FOOT CONSISTING OF A FLEXIBLE PAD SHAPED TO FIT INSIDE A SHOE AT A FIXED LOCATION AND AT LEASXT ONE ARCH SUPPORT UNIT COMPRISING A STRIP OF BENDABLE DUCTILE METAL BENT TO ARCH FORM, MEANS SECURING THE EXTERNAL SURFACE OF THE ARCH STRIP TO THE PAD, AND A TENSION MEMBER EXTENDING BETWEEN THE ENDS OF THE ARCH STRIP AND CONSISTING OF A FURTHER METAL STRIP AND ENDS OF WHICH ARE BENT AND HOOKED OVER THE ENDS OF THE ARCH STRIP TO PREVENT SEPARATION OF SAID ENDS. 